Engaging with the course

As you progress in the course, you might find that your personal interests and affinities are taking you toward a vector of engagement to seventeenth century literature that is different than the direction the lectures are taking. Should this be the case, come to an office hour and discuss it with me. English 314 is designated as course on seventeenth century literature; accodringly, so long as that is demonstrably what you are improving your knowledge in and understanding of, then your instructor can have no principled objection.
That being said, the course approach to the literature -- the dialectic between Hobbesean materialism and the transcendent Love that the poetry of Milton & the Metaphysicals argues for and delights in -- is a ready and effective means of comprehending the literature widely and in detail.